Web TV Pushes Conventions of Gay Rom Coms in 'Husbands' (Trailer)

On The Altantic's Entertainment channel, Alyssa Rosenberg argues that web TV is coming into its own with new series like Jane Espenson's Husbands. Espenson, who has writtern for a number of TV shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, financed the series herself.

On The Altantic's Entertainment channel, Alyssa Rosenberg argues that web TV is coming into its own with new series like Jane Espenson's Husbands. Espenson, who has writtern for a number of TV shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, financed the series herself.

Tomorrow Husbands, a new web show about marriage equality from a team that includes veterans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Caprica, and Desperate Housewives, premieres online. The Husbands team took to web television in the hopes that they could lay down a marker for a new kind of gay comedy—and to persuade a network to take a chance on the show.

Rosenberg, in another post, explores how Husbands, as a web series, might be able to explore more ambitious themes than shows on TV.

While gay couples are increasingly common on television, from the sweet pairing of Kurt and Blaine on Glee, to Mitch and Cam, the settled-but-not-legally-married parents of an adorable adoptive daughter on Modern Family, they largely fit that responsible-pair model. Husbands, by contrast, trusts that its audience won't judge a gay couple for treating marriage as cavalierly as straight couples have been allowed to for decades. By going small on the Web, Husbands can raise bigger questions about the future of gay relationships than its longer and better-financed network counterparts.